These are my observations about gardens, people, and outdoor miscellany. I live in Durham, North Carolina.

Monday, July 25, 2011

summertime rolls

It's been four years (almost to the day) since I got the nerve to sign up for a blogger account. Considering how much has changed since then in terms of twitter, facebook, etc., I can't believe how bashful I was to open this thing up in August of '07.

Since then, I've gone from an aspiring garden writer with a day job at Duke...... to a business manager at Duke with an aspiring home garden. I am very happy with that formula. Speaking of aspiration, that home garden of mine is doing its best to slow traffic without any supplemental watering right now. And except for the kitchenette garden, I can't complain. What's doing really well in the dog days of summer? Ironweed, native grasses, blackberry lillies, and asiatic lillies are thriving with no care. Also, coneflowers have reseeded across the yard by the hundreds and I even have a chance at flouting a ginger lily bloom or two in the ditch by my road come September.

I also have two young kids who are now old enough to appreciate the garden. My six year old and four year old know the difference between camellias and gardenias. They can point to a zinnia by name and are more interested in this year's vegetables than I am. I am proud and hopeful that they will grow to love and appreciate both the cultivated and wild outdoors as they get older.

So, I am pressing pause on piedmont plots and putting myself on a blogger diet for a few more months (or maybe longer)..... In the meantime, I will still cherish my daily commutes through Sarah P. Duke Gardens and my home "yarden" in southwest central Durham. But with my mind's eye open more than my iphone.

I want to thank those handful of readers out there who have encouraged me over the years. I have had fun. And happy gardening to every single one of you. Oh, and grow more chrysanthemums. No, not that pincushion type outside Harris Teeter. You'll thank me later.

piedmont plots: an introduction

This site is mostly about ornamental horticulture. But I hope to appeal to both non-gardeners and green thumbs.

Sometimes I may hammer out something about Durham neighborhoods, growing vegetables, or Nature. But chances are, most of my posts will be observations about different landscapes I encounter: a tree here, a bush there, some rumored bulbs in an abandoned garden somewhere else.

I have been living and gardening in zone 7 since the fall of 2004. This time in the garden has turned out to be a mostly zone 8 experience. Global warming may not be great for the polar ice-caps but maybe it has been part of what's kept my lantana and gardenias safe over the last few winters?

I am not a hard-core environmentalist or strict organic gardener but I do like native plants as well as my shrinking lawn.

I love old fashioned pass-along plants and the stories they hold.

Unless otherwise credited, Victor Gordon is responsible for all the writing and photography here.